§ 58. Sir F. SANDERSONasked the Financial Secretary to the Treasury whether he is aware of the hardship imposed upon persons of small means, and especially upon blind persons, under Section 4 of the Old Age Pensions Act, 1919, whereby the yearly value of capital value of property is taken (after excluding the first £25) as 5 per cent. in respect of the next £375, and as 10 per cent. in respect of all capital value in excess of the first £400; and, as it is now not possible to secure a rate of interest approximating to 10 per cent., and in view of the lower rate now paid on all Government securities, will he take steps to reduce the rate of interest on all capital value of property in excess of the first £400 to a figure more in keeping with present rates of interest?
§ Lieut.-Colonel COLVILLEThe Government are not prepared to initiate legislation to modify the arrangement to which my hon. Friend refers. It is not possible to deal fully with this question within the limits of a Parliamentary reply, but I would remind him that the rate of interest is only one of the considerations to be taken into account.